6/3/2020 FIELD GUIDES BIRDING TOURS: MYANMAR 2020 Field Guides Tour Report MYANMAR 2020 Feb 27, 2020 to Mar 13, 2020 Doug Gochfeld & Thiri Htin Hla For our tour description, itinerary, past triplists, dates, fees, and more, please VISIT OUR TOUR PAGE. The landscape of temples in Bagan is truly breathtaking. Over 4000 Buddhist temples were constructed between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, and more than half of those are still standing. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld. When we met in Yangon on leap day 2020, we were embarking on the inaugural Field Guides tour to the wonderful country of Myanmar, long known as Burma during the colonial era. Our day around Yangon, in addition to familiarizing us with some of the avifauna of the region, gave us our first immersion in the rich culture and storied history of this land, from the impressive Temple, with its dizzying array of gilded stupas, to the distinctive architecture of the former colonial downtown, with its large edifices that still stand today. Once we had taken our taste of Yangon, we headed up to the hills of Kalaw, to spend a couple of nights among a diversity of foothill species in an area that used to be a French hill station. Over the course of our short visit in the area, we neared a hundred species, including regional such headliners as Spectacled Barwing, Burmese Yuhina, Black-backed Sibia, and a surprise Blue-bearded Bee-eater. We then relocated some miles to the east, to the shores of Inlé Lake. The people who dwell on and around this lake have a unique lifestyle. The town of Inlé is a floating village out on the lake itself, and between their leg-manipulated oar operation, their meticulous lotus harvesting and weaving, and other skills long honed over time here, our boat rides here were fascinating. It wasn’t only culture here, though, because where there is water there are birds. We started out with a wonderful experience with the big waterbird colony (mostly Asian and Little Cormorants, but with a surprise Black-headed Ibis) in the gorgeous setting sun, and we followed that up with a morning visit to a waterfowl-rich section of the lake, where we scoured the flocks of Ferruginous Ducks and were able to come up with at least TWO of the Critically Endangered Baer’s Pochard. This was a major highlight, and given that their population has been in free-fall for the past several decades (with perhaps between 250-700 individuals left on Earth), it was pretty darn unexpected! After the eastern part of our route, we flew towards the western side of the country, to the central dry zone, where we would call the ancient city of Bagan our home for a few nights. Bagan is a fantastic place to bird: it combines birding in the dry zone, which has the highest concentration of Burmese endemics, with a sense that you are always walking through history, given that over 3000 of the original 4446 temples built several hundred years ago are still around, and the habitats around them can be stupendous. We never seemed to be out of sight of an ancient temple as we birded our way around Bagan, and indeed most of the best birding we did here was temple-adjacent. The sharp-looking Jerdon’s Minivet, with its monochrome tuxedo splashed with sunny rays of orange on the breast, joined many a bold Burmese Bushlark, plenty of inquisitive and gregarious White-throated Babblers, the lemon eyerings of Burmese Collared-Doves, and of course the phantom of the temple-scape: Hooded Treepie. After the dry heat of the Irrawaddy River lowlands around Bagan, we enjoyed a welcome change of climate on cool Mount Victoria, a high point in the Chin Hills, part of the foothills of the Himalayas. While it was indeed a respite from the heat, it wasn’t at all a respite from seeing a wonderful collection fieldguides.com/triplistsSUBMIT/mya20PRINT.html 1/13 6/3/2020 FIELD GUIDES BIRDING TOURS: MYANMAR 2020 of birds. We saw such range-restricted treasures as White-browed Nuthatch, Chin Hills Wren-Babbler, Black-headed Shrike-Babbler, Striped Laughingthrush, Mount Victoria Babax, Brown-capped and Assam laughingthrushes, and of course a troop of the amazingly charismatic Himalayan Cutia--surely one of the coolest birds around. All of these birds were experienced in the all-encompassing embrace of the intoxicating montane forests, a pine-scape with a dense and varied understory full of flowering Rhododendrons. We even got out for some night birding here, where we had a magical experience (after a bit of sweating) with a female Hodgson’s Frogmouth. Thanks for joining me on Field Guides’ inaugural (and successful!) tour to Myanmar. It was a pleasure to bird with you all, and to get to know those whom I had just met. Stay safe and well out there, and I look forward to seeing you on another tour somewhere in this great big universe. Until then, ciao! -Doug KEYS FOR THIS LIST One of the following keys may be shown in brackets for individual species as appropriate: * = heard only, I = introduced, E = endemic, N = nesting, a = austral migrant, b = boreal migrant BIRDS Anatidae (Ducks, Geese, and Waterfowl) LESSER WHISTLING-DUCK (Dendrocygna javanica) – A shockingly high concentration of over one thousand four hundred at Hlawga Park on our first birding day, and another couple of small flocks on Inlé. RUDDY SHELDUCK (Tadorna ferruginea) – A small group at Inlé Lake was a surprise, as this species is more expected along the mudbanks of the Irrawaddy, where we also had several individuals. COTTON PYGMY-GOOSE (Nettapus coromandelianus) – A handful of these cute little ducks were mixed into the first flocks of Lesser Whistling- Ducks we encountered in Hlawga. GARGANEY (Spatula querquedula) – Good numbers of these around Lake Inlé, including some nice looks at a few dapper males which allowed a reasonably close approach by us in the boats. NORTHERN SHOVELER (Spatula clypeata) – A flew flybys during our morning boat trip on Inlé Lake. GADWALL (Mareca strepera) – A handful of these low density winterers on both of our boat trips on Inlé Lake. EURASIAN WIGEON (Mareca penelope) – Small numbers in the evening, but then nice looks at a flotilla during our morning excursion on Inlé Lake. INDIAN SPOT-BILLED DUCK (Anas poecilorhyncha) – All of the Spot-billed Ducks we were able to scrutinize were Indian Spot-billed Ducks, which is the commoner of the two species in the region. NORTHERN PINTAIL (Anas acuta) – Several of these distinctively long-necked dabblers were seen flying during our trips on Inlé. GREEN-WINGED TEAL (EURASIAN) (Anas crecca crecca) – A few of them in the fading light on our evening excursion on Inlé. FERRUGINOUS DUCK (Aythya nyroca) – The common Aythya on Inlé Lake, we got lots of good looks at these milk chocolate divers as we scanned through them in search of other aythya species. BAER'S POCHARD (Aythya baeri) – This was an incredible experience with an incredibly rare bird. This species isn't just rare from a regional perspective, but globally rare. The current population estimate is 150-700 individuals, so seeing two of these on Inlé Lake was really special. Getting looks as good as we did from the boats of these oft-shy ducks was the cherry on top. TUFTED DUCK (Aythya fuligula) – We saw a couple of these mixed into the ducks on Inlé, seemingly a female and a young male, and some folks even saw an adult male during the duck fiesta. Phasianidae (Pheasants, Grouse, and Allies) RAIN QUAIL (Coturnix coromandelica) – After playing rope-a-dope with these on our island landing in the Irrawaddy, we actually got some reasonable in-flight views on terra firme around Bagan the next day. RED JUNGLEFOWL (Gallus gallus) – A few around Hlawga which looked very good for wild-type birds, and then Dean had a rooster trot its way across the road at the forktail spot amidst the dry dipterocarp forest on the final day. Podicipedidae (Grebes) LITTLE GREBE (Tachybaptus ruficollis) – three or four of these around a floating patch of grass on Inlé Lake. Columbidae (Pigeons and Doves) ROCK PIGEON (Columba livia) – We did fortunately manage to miss these on a few days, up in the Mt. Victoria section. [I] ORIENTAL TURTLE-DOVE (Streptopelia orientalis) – During our drive down from the lodge at Kalaw to the Kalaw Forest early in the morning. EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE (BURMESE) (Streptopelia decaocto xanthocycla) – With that bold yellow eye-ring, the near endemic Burmese Collared-Dove is a subspecies that is definitely a few notches above its nominate counterparts. It's separated well enough from the range of the nominate that it seems ripe for a split at some point. RED COLLARED-DOVE (Streptopelia tranquebarica) – Common in open areas in the lowlands SPOTTED DOVE (Streptopelia chinensis) – The most widespread and common native dove across our travels. YELLOW-FOOTED GREEN-PIGEON (Treron phoenicopterus) – A great pickup on our final morning was a pair of these seemingly stacked right on top of one another, up high in a tree as we birded the dry dipterocarp forest. MOUNTAIN IMPERIAL-PIGEON (Ducula badia) – A flyover in the montane evergreen forest at Mount Victoria. Cuculidae (Cuckoos) GREATER COUCAL (Centropus sinensis) – Several days with sightings of these versatile cuckoos. We observed them in the hot lowlands at Hlawga, to the paddy fields at Kalaw, the reedbeds on Inlé Lake, and even the mid-elevation forests at Mt. Victoria. fieldguides.com/triplistsSUBMIT/mya20PRINT.html 2/13 6/3/2020 FIELD GUIDES BIRDING TOURS: MYANMAR 2020 LESSER COUCAL (Centropus bengalensis) – One did a close flyby and then landed mostly in view for the second boat during our morning trip through the marshes of Inlé Lake.